Earth Equity News

Worries Mount as Farmers Push for Big Harvest. By David Streitfeld and Keith Bradsher, NYTimes, June 10, 2008. "In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster. American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought... American farmers are planting 324 million acres this year, up 4 million acres from 2007. Too much of the best land is waterlogged, however. Indiana and Illinois have been the worst hit, although Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota were inundated last weekend... At a moment when the country's corn should be flourishing, one plant in 10 has not even emerged from the ground... Because corn planted late is more sensitive to heat damage in high summer, every day's delay practically guarantees a lower yield... Harvests ebb and flow, of course. But with supplies of most of the key commodities at their lowest levels in decades, there is little room for error this year. American farmers are among the world's top producers, supplying 60% of the corn that moves across international borders in a typical year, as well as a third of the soybeans, a quarter of the wheat and a tenth of the rice."